Date: 26/02/2013 The Executive Wing of Parliament (‘the Beehive’) Bowen Street Image: Charles Collins, 2015 Summary of heritage significance • ‘The Beehive’ is the Executive Wing of Parliament and is notable as a bold example of Brutalist architecture. The building has a quality of finishes, artworks, materials and workmanship that give it a high architectural and aesthetic value. • This building has historical value through its association with the New Zealand Government. As the executive wing it has held many formal receptions in honour of varied guests. • The Beehive has townscape value for the part that it plays in defining the Bowen and Molesworth Street Parliament area. It is a self-contained, recognisable building that has become a landmark and synonymous with Wellington as the capital city, and with central government in New Zealand. 1 Date: 26/02/2013 District Plan: Map 18, reference 36 Legal Description: Sec 1 SO 38114 Heritage Area: Parliamentary Precinct Heritage Area HPT Listed: Government Historic Area, reference 7035 Archaeological Site: NZAA Central City R27/270 Other Names: The Beehive Key physical dates: Construction: 1965-1981 Architect / Builder: Architect: Sir Basil Spence/ The Ministry of Works Former uses: Government and Administration Current uses: Government and Administration Earthquake Prone Status: N/A Extent: Cityview GIS 2 Date: 26/02/2013 1.0 Outline History 1.1 History The Executive Wing of Parliament, known to most as the Beehive, houses the offices of the Prime Minister and of Ministers of the Crown. It is a landmark building in Wellington and is a unique piece of architecture that has become synonymous with the Capital City. 1 Wellington became New Zealand’s capital in 1865, with Parliament officially sitting in the city for the first time on 26 July 1865. The Colony’s capital was originally established by Governor William Hobson at Kororareka (Russell) in the Bay of Islands. After 1841 it had been sited in Auckland before its final move to Wellington.2 The Beehive occupies an important site; it was initially the site of the house of Colonel William Wakefield, the de facto head of the Wellington settlement in its earliest days. The land surrounding his house had been designated a Government Reserve.3 Wakefield’s house was purchased to house Lieutenant Governor Eyre, Governor Grey’s second in command. It was used as a hospital for victims of the 1848 earthquake. This building was also used as the Provincial Council Building in 1857 and was later converted into Parliament House in 1866 and enlarged to house the General Assembly. In 1870 the Colonial Architect, William Clayton, designed a replacement Government House to be built on the site and it was completed the following year. The house was large, Italianate, and built in timber. This building was used as a Parliamentary debating chamber after the disastrous fire of 1907 which burned down the General Assembly Building. The Parliament buildings that are now present on the site were designed to replace the loss of these timber buildings. The Governor General was moved to Palmerston North until a new Government House was built near the Basin Reserve in 1912. In the late 1950s it was proposed that the Parliament Buildings, that has been left unfinished in 1922, should be completed. The Government of the time, however, decided that a completely new building should be constructed on the site. The British architect Sir Basil Spence was engaged to contribute plans for a new building in 1963. It is rumoured that he was contracted after meeting the Prime Minister Keith Holyoake and sketching the design for a round building on a napkin. 4 The Ministry of Works is credited with the detailed design and production of drawings and specifications, as well as the supervision of the construction. Work on the new building did not begin until 1969 when the former Government House was demolished. Construction took some time and was not formally completed until 1981. At the time, the building attracted considerable criticism for the impracticality of the internal arrangements. In 1997 there was some consideration put into moving the Beehive to the site of the just demolished Broadcasting House and completing the Parliament Buildings, but this did not eventuate. 1 The history is an updated version of the WCC Heritage Building Inventory 2001 ref BOWE1 2 History of Wellington 1865 – 1890, accessed March 2013, http://wellington.govt.nz/about- wellington/history/history-of-wellington/1865-1890 3 Cook, R. Parliament: The Land and Buildings from 1840, (Wellington: Parliamentary Service, 1988) 9 4 Kernohan, D. Wellington’s New Buildings (Wellington: VUW Press, 1989) 3 Date: 26/02/2013 The building was refurbished by architectural firm Warren and Mahoney between 2001 and 2006. This was undertaken to improve way-finding, improve usable floor area, incorporate new technology, and update the interior design. The entrance and mail handling areas were both redesigned to improve security. The building has an ongoing association with the government of New Zealand and, since it opened in 1981, has housed all the Prime Ministers, cabinets and parliamentary staff from Sir Robert Muldoon’s government of 1975-1984 onwards. Old Government House, Wellington. Hill, Morrie: Negatives of Wellington and national events and personalities. Ref: 1/2-177172-F. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. http://natlib.govt.nz/records/22842847 Alexander Turnbull Library (with permission of Parliament) Reference: A260-013 http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/media/photo/beehive-drawing-basil-spence 4 Date: 26/02/2013 The Beehive under construction, Wellington. Negatives of the Evening Post newspaper. Ref: 1/4-022262-F. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. http://natlib.govt.nz/records/23209583 1.2 Timeline of modifications Original plans are held by Archives New Zealand. 1999 1 Molesworth Street, The Beehive, Executive Wing: Refurbishment stage 1: Lift installation (00078:406:60365) Molesworth Street, The Beehive, Executive Wing: Stage 1 refurbishment (00078:1686:50523) 2000 1 Molesworth Street, The Beehive, Executive Wing: Refurbishment of floors 4 – 10, stage 3 (00078:1718:68059) 2001 3 Molesworth Street, The Beehive, Executive Wing: Refurbishment stage 1, Bellamy’s egress corridor upgrade (00078:602:72527) 2002 3 Molesworth Street, The Beehive, Executive Wing: Refurbishment: Sub-basement, new operable door installation, minor demolition (00078:983:89644) 1 Molesworth Street, The Beehive, Executive Wing, Parliament Building, Level 1, coffee shop fit- out (00078:992:95719) 2004 1 Molesworth Street, The Beehive, Refurbishment and upgrade of services to levels basement, ground floor, levels 1 & 2 and executive wing, parliament central, Wellington (00078:1822:116423) 2008 1 Molesworth Street, The Beehive, installation of a new plant room in existing car park area $ 15, 000 (00078:3437:180057) 1.3 Occupation history Not assessed 5 Date: 26/02/2013 1.4 Architect Note: this repeats the Dictionary of Scottish Architect’s entry for Sir Basil Spence.5 Sir Basil Spence (1907 – 1976) Sir Basil Spence was a Scottish architect noted for his designs in the Modernist/Brutalist style. Spence was born in Bombay, India and educated at the John Connon School, operated by the Bombay Scottish Education Society. He then was sent to Scotland to attend George Watson’s College in Edinburgh from 1919 – 1925. He enrolled in the Edinburgh College of Art in 1925, studying architecture, where he secured a scholarship on the strength of the “unusual brilliance” of his work. He won a number of prizes while at college. In 1929 – 1930 he spent a year as an assistant in the London office of Sir Edwin Lutyens, whose work had a great influence upon Spence’s style. While in London, Spence attended a number of evening classes and in 1930 returned to the Edinburgh College of Art. During the final year of his studies, he was appointed as a junior lecturer, despite the fact that he was still a student. He continued to teach until 1939 at the college. Following his graduation, Spence set up a practice with William Kininmonth (1904 – 1988) based in the offices of Rowand Anderson & Paul in Edinburgh. In 1934 the Kininmonth and Spence practice merged with Rowand Anderson & Paul and following the death of Arthur Balfour Paul in 1938 the practice was renamed Rowand Anderson & Paul & Partners. Kininmonth and Spence were in charge of this practice and Spence began focussing on working on exhibition design and country houses. In 1939 Spence was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant into the Camouflage Training and Development Unit of the British Army. He was initially based in Surrey, but took part in the D-Day landings in 1944. He was demobilised in September 1945, having reached the rank of major. Following the war Spence returned to Rowand Anderson & Paul & Partners before setting up his own practice, Basil Spence & Partners, with Bruce Robertson. He was awarded an OBE in 1948 for his work in exhibition design. In 1951 he opened a London office, moving there permanently from 1953. From 1958 – 1960 Spence was the president of the Royal Institute of British Architects. He leapt to prominence during the Festival of Britain in 1951 as chief architect for the Exhibition of Industrial Power in Glasgow and the designer of the Sea & Ships Pavilion, perhaps the best of all the displays on London's South Bank. In the same year he won the competition to design the new Coventry Cathedral, and he was subsequently responsible for ten parish churches. He built several schools both in Scotland and England. Although often criticised as a picturesque designer unconcerned by the dictates of structure, his nuclear physics building in Glasgow confirmed his mastery of complex technological briefs and led to some fifty university buildings in Scotland and England, including three major campuses at Nottingham, Southampton and Sussex.